Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 13 June 2010; Corps 614 Regent Park and The Warehouse Mission, 16 Sept 2016; and Alberni Valley Ministries, 30 April 2023
This is the 2023 Alberni
Valley Version (See below for links to versions from other places and other
times)
Summer feels like it is
here, I saw someone driving their fancy classic car the other day. Don, you
belong to the car club. When do all the summer events begin? Seeing this made
me reminisce about my first car, it isn’t quite as fancy as those classic cars
but here is a picture of it…
Okay that’s not my car
–but that isn’t entirely dissimilar from my car. My car only cost $100 and see
how Fred’s car is propelled… It only moves because he runs with his feet
sticking out the bottom. That was sort of like my Pontiac. Like Fred’s car,
didn’t have any floorboards at all on the passenger’s side – so my passengers
had to be careful not to drop anything on the floor because it would be gone.
It was allegedly a two-door but the driver’s door never worked. This sometimes
made it a little difficult especially considering one of my friends for part of
this time was confined to a wheelchair so whenever I gave them a ride I would
either have to climb over them to get into the car or more likely get in Dukes
of Hazard style. (You remember the Duke’s of Hazard where they would climb in
through the windows instead of using the door?) – Actually, before I was done
with my car, we always had to get in Dukes of Hazard style because the other
door broke too. Nonetheless I loved my first car. It was all mine. It did have
one good thing about it. It had four really nice moon discs. They were shiny,
they were good solid hubcaps and they were really cool.
‘I desire mercy’ is a
quote from our text today. When I was a teenager I used to let friends drive my
car. One friend – Bill– has his learner’s license. We load the car up with many
of our friends and we go cruising around the town. At one point we decide to go
through the drive through and get some water to drink (we couldn’t afford to
buy anything else) so – Bill is driving – he takes us through the drive through
and he cuts the corner too close and - ‘crunch’ – there goes my front moon disk
and then instead of stopping, (because he is an inexperienced driver) he keeps
going and ‘crunch’; there goes a second one. Bill is so upset as he is chased
from my car by our friends. He starts walking home feeling quite sad. I take
over driving. We order enough waters from the A&W for everyone and Bill too
– remember the quote from the
scriptures, ‘I desire mercy’ – we pull up beside him. He comes up to the car
and then we – well – we hit him with our waters. Okay maybe that is not a good
example of mercy. We got it a little backwards.
Jesus said, “I desire
mercy, not sacrifice’. This is significant. Look at what is happening in our
text today. Jesus is having one of his all too familiar conflicts with the
religious teachers. Jesus is walking along after performing a sensational faith
healing in front of a large audience, he sees a tax collector and Jesus invites
himself over to this house for dinner and the tax collector (Matthew) accepts.
Now we should put
things in perspective a little bit here. Jesus is famous. He is as popular as
any athlete or music star. Just like contemporary celebrities, crowds are
following Jesus everywhere. He even has to hop on a boat after the miracle of
the fish and the loaves to get away from them. Jesus is a pretty popular
celebrity and all the people are following him and Jesus sees this tax
collector and he invites himself over for dinner.
Anybody have a
favourite celebrity here? Call out a name or two… what if _____ invited himself
over to your place for dinner, would you accept? Of course. This is what
Matthew does.
Now Matthew is a tax
collector. Strictly speaking he is more like a customs officer, but it was the
same idea: he collects taxes for Rome. Tax collectors are not the most popular
people in the world these days.
It was even worse in
Jesus' day. Do you remember who controlled Palestine in Jesus’ day? The Romans.
Palestine was an occupied territory. I am the Legion Chaplain here.. As a
Judean, for Matthew, sitting in his toll booth collecting taxes from his own
people to pay Caesar may even seem be like collaborating with the enemy.
So here is Jesus, a
celebrity preacher, who some people even know is the Messiah but misguidedly think
he will destroy Rome and free the occupied territories and Jesus goes and
invites himself over to one of the collaborators' places for dinner.
So Jesus’ adversaries
think they see a weakness. They think that they can create a scandal that will
discredit him. If there were newspapers, internet and the like back then the
headline on the 6-O’Clock News would read like verse 11: “Jesus eats with
sinners and tax collectors.”
Jesus doesn’t deny what
he is doing. He is associating with unliked people. The Pharisees have caught
Jesus red-handed with these ‘sinners’ they call them, and so, Verse 11: “When
the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat
with tax collectors and 'sinners'?’” Jesus overhears them and instead of
denying his actions, Verses 12 and 13, “On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not
the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means:
‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but
sinners.’”
So this is interesting.
Jesus is quoting Hosea 6. The Pharisees would have been very familiar with
Hosea 6. Do you remember who are the Pharisees? The best of the Pharisees are
like the good Bible-believing Christians of today, even encouraging us to
holiness; Nicodemus and the Apostle Paul were Pharisees (Acts 23:6, 26:5). The
worst of the Pharisees, I imagine, if they were around today would be intimidating
people on social media who aren’t following societal rules of their day. These
Pharisees, who themselves, are very careful not to break any religious laws accuse
Jesus every time they catch him doing something that they do not think
appropriate.
When accused here Jesus
says to the Pharisees, Matthew 9:13: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I
desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
The Pharisees were
really good at sacrifice. They did rightly believe in holiness. Amongst their
number were probably some of the best of the religious people of their day (cf.
Acts 22:1-5; Galatians 1:13,14). Maybe even better than us at following the
scriptures. They tithed regularly. They read their scriptures. They come to the
synagogue (church) regularly. They did not work on the Sabbath or do anything that
would cause someone else to work (Dt 5; Ex20). They are very careful worshiping
God by providing the appropriate sacrifices. If they were around today, they
most likely would always have a wholesome radio station tuned into their car
and/or their computer; they would always be dressed appropriately and they
would be very careful to tithe and be self-sacrificing. This is good.
Where they go wrong is
in pointing out that Jesus by eating with ‘sinners’ is like the sinners and not
like them. Jesus agrees that he is not like them and he tells them why: He says
the difference is that the Pharisees are not extending mercy. God loves people.
The word ‘mercy’ here, ḥesed, means steadfast love or literally
‘covenant love.’ They are accusing Jesus of not being faithful to the covenant
with God because he eats with ‘sinners’ but Jesus says that he is faithful to
God’s covenant precisely because he does eat with ‘sinners’. Jesus says,
quoting Hosea 6:6: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but ‘sinners.’
The Pharisees
sacrificed lots to do many good things right but Jesus says that is not what is
most important. God desires mercy and not sacrifice.
I remember once when I
was visiting a good church many, many years ago; a street person came in and
lay down on the pews for a nap. A good, self-sacrificing pastor at this church
asked him to leave. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
I have also seen
congregations where nice, good, self-sacrificing church people have sat
pouting, arms crossed all through the service because some stranger had dared
to come an unwittingly sit in their seat. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.'
I have heard divorced
people, single mothers and others tell me that they felt shunned in their
churches by the good self-sacrificing Christians after their life circumstances
change. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.'
I have in my time heard
good self-sacrificing Salvationists help the poor but complain whenever someone
shows up for help who doesn`t look poor enough or needy enough or who does not
seem marginalized. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
I have in my time seen
good self-sacrificing Salvationists actually punish people for behaving in ways
that are totally consistent with their diagnosis. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy,
not sacrifice.'
Well, what about us
here today? How do we greet the people God brings across our path? Do we extend
to them the hesed covenant love of Christ who spends time with them (and
us) no matter who they (and we) are.
Today, like always, I
invite us to examine ourselves. Are we like it says in Matthew 23:24,
‘straining a gnat and swallowing a camel’? Are we ‘majoring in the minors’? Or
do we openly embrace our brothers and sisters? Do we eagerly look for
opportunities to show our love for God by loving our neighbours –poor or rich,
nice or mean, scary or not scary? In short, if Christ showed up today in disguise
would we welcome him warmly? If there are any ways that we here today have not
been open to serving God by showing this hesed, mercy, covenant love to
our neighbours, I would ask the Lord to reveal that to us, so that we can turn
that and our whole lives over to Jesus Christ and I pray that people will
indeed know we are Christians by our love.
May we all today go
from here with a renewed impetus to show hesed, mercy, covenant love to our
neighbour and may they will know we are Christians by our love.
To view the 2016
version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2016/09/hosea-66-matthew-913-i-desire-mercy-not.html
To view the 2010
original version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/06/matthew-913-i-desire-mercy-not-sacrifice.html
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